Putin Foe Navalny Vows Battle for Power on Return to Moscow

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Alexey Navalny, a leading opponent
of Russian President Vladimir Putin, vowed to mount a challenge
for power as crowds of cheering supporters greeted him in Moscow
after he was freed while he appeals a five-year prison sentence.

Navalny, 37, arrived at Moscow’s Yaroslavsky railway
station today from the city of Kirov, where the trial took
place, to tumultuous scenes as riot police turned out to control
hundreds of activists holding white flowers and dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with his name.

“The state is powerless, we are the power,” Navalny, who
is running for Moscow mayor in September elections, shouted via
a loudspeaker. “We have a big, tough election campaign ahead of
us, seven weeks of non-stop work, and this is only the start.
Let’s fight for political power in this country.”

Navalny, who helped organize the biggest protests against
Putin’s 13-year-rule in 2011 and last year, was convicted of
embezzlement by a judge in Kirov, 900 kilometers (560 miles)
northeast of Moscow on July 18. Thousands of people in Moscow
protested the verdict, which also sparked condemnation by the
U.S. and Europe, on the eve of a meeting of Group of 20 finance
chiefs. The benchmark Micex Index slumped as much as 1.6 percent
after the ruling.

Police detained about 200 Navalny supporters July 18 and
may fine at least 110 of them as much as 20,000 rubles ($618)
each for administrative violations, Kommersant reported today.
Russia’s Investigative Committee today opened a criminal case
against an unidentified man suspected of hitting and tearing an
epaulet off a police officer detaining protesters.

Surprise Move

When Navalny said he’d withdraw from the Moscow mayoral
race if he remained in prison, prosecutors unexpectedly asked
the court to free him pending appeal.

Putin appointed his chief of staff Sergei Sobyanin as
Moscow mayor in 2010 to end the 14-year rule of Yury Luzhkov.
The president backed Sobyanin’s push for a snap election,
allowing him to capitalize on popular support. The Sept. 8 vote
will be the capital’s first direct ballot for a mayor in 10
years.

Pyotr Khodikov, a 25-year-old from the Moscow region who
took part in the pro-Navalny rally on the day of his conviction,
said the authorities are making a mistake by using the
opposition leader to boost the legitimacy of the election.

‘Turning Point’

“If they jail a candidate for Moscow mayor who’s got
several million votes, it will be a scandal and a big turning
point,” Khodikov said at the railway station. “He’s already
the undisputed leader of the Russian opposition. Over the next
few years he’ll only get stronger.”

A lawyer and anti-corruption activist, Navalny vowed to
contest the next presidential election in 2018 and put Putin and
his billionaire allies in jail if he won. His conviction, if
upheld, would preclude him from ever holding public office.

Putin, 60, has hardened his response against critics since
winning a new six-year presidential term last year. Some
protesters have been imprisoned, while economist Sergei Guriev
and former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, critics fearing
prosecution, fled Russia this year.

Sobyanin would win 34 percent of the vote, according to a
survey of 1,000 Muscovites conducted July 4-8 by the research
company Levada center. Navalny would be second with 4 percent,
according to the poll, which had a 4.8 percentage point margin
of error. Forty-two percent were undecided.